


Bring Me Back

by Usagidesu



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: One Shot, epilouge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 13:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15631563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Usagidesu/pseuds/Usagidesu
Summary: There was a child in his door step to called him "Daddy?!"





	Bring Me Back

Slaine was deeply troubled. There was a child in his living room drinking grape juice. Actually, the situation would have been better if that was it. A child drinking grape juice in his living room. What didn’t sit well on Slaine’s chest was the fact that the child, boy, called him, “Daddy.”

Slaine glanced behind him again. Brunette, check. Glasses, check. Pouty lips, check. That child was definitely his brother’s son, Nova. Why had the little one called him Daddy? Slaine had no idea.

Maybe it was because Slaine was wearing Althea’s glasses. They had similar features too, so maybe that was why?

Slaine was afraid to go near the boy, feared talking to the boy. He looked so much like his father except, he had deep green eyes. Slaine’s shoulders jerked in surprise that he only just realized that they were looking at each other. Dread filled the blond’s chest as awkwardness filled the air between the boy and Slaine.

“Wha... What’s up?”

 _‘What a way to start a conversation,’_ Slaine groaned to himself as he berated himself. He sighed out and rubbed his face in frustration until his ears caught the sound of a happy giggle. His bluish-green eyes opened and moved to look at the little boy covering his mouth with his two hands as if trying to suppress his giggle.

“Papa is also awkward!”

“Huh?” was Slaine’s dumb answer. His mind never left the word “also”. What did this boy mean by that?

“Whenever papa visits Nova, papa always starts with what’s up!” Nova tried to remind Slaine and it really pained Slaine very much. However much he knew he had to tell this boy, his nephew, that he was not his father, he just couldn’t do so. It seemed like Nova really loved his father and to tell him that Althea was not around anymore would most likely break the little boy. He couldn’t do that do her but he also should not hide it from him. He had a right to know.

“Ho-How did you find me... dar-... dear?”

“We are playing hide heart and seek but that’s very easy for me since everyone’s heartbeat is different, daddy!” Nova explained. “I can hear people’s heartbeats from very very far away!”

So Nova had found him by his heartbeat? Was that it? His heart belonged to Althea, so Nova must have followed this heartbeat while believing it was his father. Would he be disappointed to learn that he was not his father?

“Nova, you know...” Slaine swallowed what he thought a baseball sized of sorrow and sadness before those feelings spread within his heart.

“Daddy,” Nova spoke out before Slaine could continue.

“I’ll always find you, no matter where you are so don’t cry.”

A tear slide down his cheek just as Nova's tears bubbled up to cascade down his smooth cheeks. After all, Nova really was Althea’s child.

“Why are you crying?” Slaine chuckled a little as he finally approached his nephew and knelt down to his side. His big and callous fingers gently dragged his falling tears away.

“Because daddy is crying!” Nova whined as he sniffled a little. Slaine laughs brokenly but he feels like he is being healed in the presence of Nova. It was funny. Althea healed his heart and stopped his suicidal tendencies. Nova seemed to be pasting Slaine back into one. Somehow, Nova was bringing him back to life.

A world without Althea was the same as being dead. No matter how Granny Ai was there to support him or how the annoying Inaho would persistently follow him around. Althea was his twin, his other half so when Althea died, it was like half of Slaine had also died. To think that the one to truly save him would Althea’s child, Nova, was something Slaine did not expect. It was also all the more reason to tell the little boy what really happened to his father.

Slaine hugged the boy, awkwardly and the boy laughed.

“You’re exactly like papa!”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, papa used to visit whenever he had time and that was not a lot. He was always shy to Nova but Nova knows that papa loves me very much. One day, papa came and told me that papa’s heart might stop, but told me not to worry because the other half of papa would do the job to keep it beating,” Slaine’s breath hitched. His eyebrow knitting together and his gawned on his teeth to prevent a wet choke to hiss out of his throat.

“Papa said that the half of papa may be different but is still papa and to call him daddy. Papa said that daddy would be a little less like papa and a little broken and Nova should bring glue to paste him up!”

Nova's words sounded like Althea’s voice all of a sudden to Slaine. It was like Althea was speaking to Slaine through Nova. Slaine’s arms tightened around Nova’s small body. He pressed his nephew, now son, against his chest and his hand went to the back of his little head. The blond understood by feeling Nova’s body quiver that Nova was also broken. Nova understood, Slaine knew that Nova understood that Althea was gone but was alive through Slaine just the same with the latter. Althea was alive through Nova. They were both broken and they were the best medicine for each other. They were dead but that was okay now. They had each other. They would bring each other back from the dead.

  



End file.
